20 days to go to World Diabetes Day!

Congress closes with global diabetes community united to tackle epidemic

As we write this message, the International Diabetes Federation's 20th World Diabetes Congress is drawing to a close. The meeting attracted 12,000 international delegates from over 150 countries to Montreal, Canada. The sense of community among the many diabetes representative organizations that constituted the global diabetes village was a reminder of how World Diabetes Day activities help link us all. Past campaigns and upcoming activities were very much in evidence.

The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with delegates reporting that they felt energized by the congress experience and ready to take key learnings back to their countries to see how local adaption and implementation can best benefit people living with diabetes and those at risk.

As we all unite behind a global agenda that demands action to address diabetes and other non-communicable diseases, we will need to make sure that our awareness activities around the upcoming and subsequent World Diabetes Days lend community support to help drive this agenda.

The global diabetes community will re-convene in two years time at the 21st IDF World Diabetes Congress in Dubai 2011.

Incoming IDF President sets ambitious goals to fight diabetes

In a passionate speech, incoming IDF President Professor Jean Claude Mbanya highlighted the need to increase diabetes awareness and deliver health education to make sure that the newly diagnosed are guided along a path of treatment and informed self-care that empowers them to avoid or delay the potentially devastating consequences of diabetes.

He called for increased funding for diabetes and other non-communicable diseases, for greater integration of healthcare systems to cope with the growing burden and for concerted effort to place essential medicines within reach of all people living with diabetes. He demanded that accidents of history and geography be irrelevant in deciding who can access diabetes care and who cannot.

President Mbanya gave praise to the grass roots action that brings diabetes to light on World Diabetes Day.

Read the full speech.

New diabetes figures drive media attention ahead of World Diabetes Day

In 1985, the best data available suggested that 30 million people had diabetes. Fast-forward 15 years and the numbers were revised to just over 150 million. Today, less than ten years on, new data launched last week show that a staggering 285 million people are now living with diabetes. The latest figures from the IDF Diabetes Atlas 4th Edition indicate that people in low and middle-income countries are bearing the brunt of the epidemic. Media coverage of the figures sent the disturbing news around the globe through print and broadcast media.

All the latest data are available online free of charge. Visit the website so that you can find the latest figures to support your World Diabetes Day campaign (http://www.diabetesatlas.org). Follow our data tweets through http://twitter.com/wdd.

Confirmed lightings pass 300 mark!

In the past 10 days we have had over 120 lighting confirmations. We will profile some of these activities in our next update. Please keep sending in your confirmations to Dominique (dominique.robert@idf.org). Check the latest figures. Whatever you're planning for World Diabetes Day, from individual action to the biggest diabetes event to ever hit your town, don't forget to let us know what you're up to. We want your activity to count as one of the many planned throughout the global diabetes community.

Desert Dingo Racing launches 12 seconds video campaign

Desert Dingo Racing is the World Diabetes Day entry in the Baja 1000. This will be the third year the team enter the Baja 1000 as a drive-a-thon to raise money for the International Diabetes Federation.

This year, the team are sponsoring a video campaign in cooperation with IDF and 12seconds.tv. People whose lives have been touched by diabetes are invited to sign up for a 12seconds account and post their video message on the World Diabetes Day page at http://12seconds.tv/rooms/WorldDiabetesDay.

Desert Dingo Racing will select 52 submissions to post on their website for a year-long campaign of education and encouragement. A new video will be featured each week to promote a different perspective on diabetes. More information is available at http://desertdingo.com/WDD.

The WDD champions have also collaborated with Santa Cruz artist Eric Stettmeier to create the Blue Circle, a super hero with diabetes. Download colouring pages. The Blue Circle will be making regular appearances to highlight the accomplishments of young people who are managing the challenges of diabetes.

Amy promotes World Diabetes Day to growing community

World Diabetes Day Champion Amy Tenderich is a journalist and person with diabetes. She started the popular DiabetesMine.com after her diagnosis of type 1 diabetes in 2003. Her site has fast become a must-visit destination for many people with diabetes. Last year, she became the Community Manager of DiabeticConnect.com, now the fastest-growing online diabetes community with over 60,000 members. Amy has become a well-established advocate for all people with diabetes.

She'll be blogging about the campaign this year and promoting a number of supporting actions, including a giving programme that will award a $100 gift card to a person or organization on November 14th and a photo competition. The latter will encourage people to take photographs of themselves either participating in a diabetes awareness activity or showing how diabetes impacts their lives. A prize will be awarded to the winning entry. Visit http://www.diabetesmine.com to find out more.